New Ballet Ensemble & School (NBE) needed a new website that would not only showcase the talent and arts excellence they foster, but also provide a digital space for parents, students, and alumni. 

With 20+ years under our belt creating exceptional online experiences for nonprofits and arts organizations in Memphis (our Headquarters!) and beyond, Speak was the perfect partner to build New Ballet a stunning, conversion-driven site. We set out to create a website that would meet all of New Ballet's needs and goals, drive more donations, promote event attendance, and foster a deeper connection with their local Memphis community. 

Read on to learn how New Ballet Ensemble's new website is helping them stretch their impact more than ever before.

The Client + The Project.

NBE was founded with the mission of making excellent dance training and education accessible beyond barriers of class, race, and other vital factors. They offer students a rigorous dance education, but beyond that, they provide them with academic support, family engagement, access to wellness services, and a robust alumni network after leaving the program.

With so many moving parts that make up the top-notch creative youth development they offer, they needed their new site to function seamlessly, connect with each of their audiences, and move people to action. 

The Homepage Design.

 

We started from scratch to build NBE a website that truly captures the work they do and tells their story in a fresh, inspiring way. We saw the opportunity to showcase New Ballet as the new face of dance in Memphis and clearly demonstrate that dance and ballet are for everyone. 

We focused on building them a stunning homepage designed to quickly and effectively captivate every user and communicate their impact loud and clear. 

Photo courtesy of New Ballet Ensemble's website, newballet.org.

The hero video that begins as soon as the site loads brings the true impact of their work to life, as it showcases vignettes of students of all ages from the classroom, interacting with enthusiastic instructors, to performing on stage across several genres of dance. We overlayed New Ballet's overriding statement of purpose that remains on display as the video plays: Empowering the next generation of artists. 

This strategic and scroll-stopping video reel feature captivates users from the start and is helping New Ballet keep people engaged on their site for longer periods of time. This way, we've increased the likelihood of exploring further.

Once users do scroll, they're introduced to NBE's mission. We built them a compelling statistic feature that counts up as it loads on the page to feature clear demonstrations of the good work New Ballet is doing.

Interior Pages that Inspire Action.

New Ballet emphasized the importance of having their digital space educate and serve each visitor, whether they’re a student, parent, alumni, performance attendee or potential donor. We identified the main pages people were visiting on their website and the content they wanted to ensure visitors found. Our team of strategists used that information to build out a wireframe of the new site with a clear, hamburger-style navigation that drives users to the right pages. 

We were sure to place strategic calls to donate throughout the site, including a hero button in the top right corner that stays with users as they scroll so supporting New Ballet’s mission stays top of mind for every user. We built the site around the key audiences New Ballet's site needed to serve, so it's informative, exciting, and easy to use for every visitor. 

A Space for Alumni

New Ballet wanted not only a space to showcase the amazing professional dancers who have graduated from their program, but also a way to continually re-engage their alumni. We created a space for alumni to quickly and easily connected with upcoming performances, professional development opportunities, and volunteer opportunities to help the success of NBE's Creative Youth Development program. 

Parent Section

The success of New Ballet's students often depends on parental support, so it was crucial that we create a space for parents of current and prospective students to stay informed and connected.

The section of the site we designed with guardians in mind allows them an in depth look at the high quality classical ballet training that happens at New Ballet, as well as the whole-child development mission that NBE is committed to. Through the new NBE site, prospective parents can learn more about the ways NBE connects student dancers with mentors to provide support and advice to succeed both in and beyond the studio. Parents of current students can stay up-to-date and involved by looking at upcoming performances, a school/class calendar, and much more. 

The Calendar

From weekly classes to one-time workshops to off-campus learning and partnership opportunities and performances, there's always something new and exciting happening at New Ballet School. One of New Ballet's main goals of their new website was to have two clear, comprehensive calendars that would serve each of their audiences. We built a student calendar with classes, rehearsal dates and resources on it, and a performance calendar with dates of showcases, workshops, and more. 

New Ballet had specific needs and ideas for their performance calendar. We made sure that at every turn, they were able to work with our whole team of experts to collaborate on the best solution for them. We compiled a project team including strategists, designers, and developers to help them achieve their goals within the supported WordPress functionality. Now they have a performance calendar tailored to their needs that they can manage and adjust in the future.

The Results.

The end result that we delivered for New Ballet checks all the boxes. At every turn, it's built to engage New Ballet’s audiences, drive connection, and move people to action. Comparing data from several weeks leading up to launch, their new site is greatly outperforming the old iteration, and is clearly making a splash among visitors. See for yourself: 

Page Views increased by 1,143.8% with a total of 8.6k

User Engagement increased by 833% with a total of: 5.9k

First Visitors increased by 10,994% with a total of 2K

User Activity in the past 30 days increased by 11,033% with a total of 2,004

 

We're excited about our continued partnership with New Ballet, and we can't wait to see how this new site continues to help them do good in the Memphis community. 

"We're proud to have develped a great relationship with the New Ballet team that consisted of clear communication, collaboration, idea-sharing, and organization. With their help, we were able to create a beautiful website that fit their specific needs and audience."

- Sarah Gannon, Project Manager for New Ballet Ensemble

Ready to revamp your online presence in 2023? 

Whether you're looking for a brand new website designed to help you reach your goals, an audience growth strategy to get your organization seen by the masses, or a creative team to jump in where you lack bandwidth, Speak would love to partner with you this year. Got a project in mind? Tell us about it! 

Let's chat